SECURELY PREPARED

Sheriff Lee Baca would like to reiterate to the public the importance of being prepared. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department remains ready to respond to any emergency that occurs in Los Angeles County and beyond.

It is important to remember the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has not received any specific or credible information regarding acts of terrorism or threats to public safety. Our response to any emergency, should one occur, will be swift and more than adequate. We will respond with the personnel, resources, and equipment to effectively manage any incident and protect the public. In more than 150 years of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's existence, we have responded to and handled large scale emergencies and natural disasters with skill and confidence.

Now, more than ever, we must work together to disseminate current and accurate information to the public. As our troops prepare to protect our nation from halfway around the world, it is essential to support them by remaining calm, and coalescing our efforts to protect our homeland.

Crisis situations share the same common characteristics. These same response principles are routinely applied by highly trained and equipped personnel. The unified command, containment, communication, and coordination of resources and effective communication to the public all apply to the efficient handling of any emergency. These basic response principles will apply to the current status of protecting our communities. In addition to applying these basic response principals, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has taken considerable measures to enhance and improve several areas of critical response.

The areas of intelligence sharing and analysis has been enhanced with the forming of the Terrorism Early Warning Group (TEW). The Department has dedicated full-time investigators, analysts, supervisors, and support staff to this effort. The Los Angeles Police Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation have contributed full-time assets to TEW and several local law enforcement agencies are contributing personnel on a rotating basis. Additionally, Terrorism Liaison Officers (TLO's) have been designated at every local law enforcement agency and Sheriff's Stations in the County. These TLO's serve as a conduit for intelligence and training information between all agencies. This system has provided an unprecedented flow of information. Our ability to respond to crisis situations (Consequence Management) has been greatly enhanced by the full-time participation of experts in the field of chemical, biological, and radiological events. These experts prepare Course of Action recommendations for emergency managers during times of crisis.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department realizes the importance of disseminating accurate and timely information to the public about our personnel, training, equipment, and ability to respond to emergencies.

As such, we have outlined the most current information.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has accomplished the following:

• Developed Playbooks (Standard framework for conducting assessment and developing courses of action for classes of threat) for: Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosives (CBRNE) events.

• Developed standard threat assessment procedures for CBRNE threats and response information folders for critical infrastructure venues.

• Developed "Managing the Genie" six-video suite on CBRNE Awareness for public safety personnel.

• Sponsored training on CBRNE Incident Commander, Threat Assessment, Suicide Bombing Response and Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Terrorism Operations; two-day Bioterrorism Conference with UCLA's Burkle Center; and three-day Bioterrorism/ Homeland Defense Conference with RAND

• Participated in Forensic Epidemiology (joint law enforcement-public health investigative response to bioterrorism) training

• Participated in numerous exercises to build and enhance response capabilities.

Chemical Terrorism Tabletop
Westwind ‘99 (five-day joint FBI, state, local, federal, military field and command exercise with chemical and biological elements).
Biological Terrorism tabletop
Countywide EOC exercise
Exercises with California National Guard,

• Established the Field Assessment Support Team (FAST) with TEW for CBRNE reconnaissance

Developed Force Protection Operations Course which provided training for Special Enforcement Bureau and various county police agencies, including training to use personal protective equipment (PPE)

• Obtained chemical agent detectors and monitors and radiological detection and survey equipment for deployment with FAST and Arson Explosives Squad.

• Obtained cache of PPE for force protection, FAST and Arson Explosives Squad personnel.

Purchase of 8,700 gas masks and a cache including additional masks, self-contained breathing apparatus, protective over-garments, boots, and gloves and is deployed via FAST vehicles.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department continues to seek grant monies to augment our equipment and training needs.

SHB-21A-03 X X X X X X X X X X X X March 19, 2003